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How effective has International policy been in reducing the risk of wood-borer insects from entering the forests of the US?

Submitted by french on 20 May 2014 - 4:09pm

In recent years, wood-infesting insects have caused serious environmental and economic damage in the United States and around the world, catching public and regulatory attention. Wood packaging material (WPM), such as shipping pallets, is one of the common ways wood pests move freely one country to another. International trade has introduced many exotic insect pests and plant pathogens and several have become highly invasive causing serious impacts to multiple habitats worldwide. In 2002, the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 (ISPM15) was adopted setting standards for treatment for WPM used for international trade.

From 2008 to 2010, an NCEAS Working Group combed federal records to determine the effectiveness of international policy in preventing wood-borer infested WPM from entering the US, and estimated the economic costs associated the potential colonization of exotic pests and pathogens. The results of their efforts were recently published in PLOS ONE and Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

New International Wood Packaging Standard Stops Bugs Dead in their Tracks - See more at: http://blogs.usda.gov/2014/06/10/new-international-wood-packaging-standard-stops-bugs-dead-in-their-tracks/#sthash.1UMHcCNX.dpuf

Working Group: Effects of trade policy on management of non-native forest pests and pathogensMore information about this Working Group’s research, participants and publications

This work was supported by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, the National Science Foundation (Grant #EF-0553768), and the University of California, Santa Barbara.